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posted by chromas on Tuesday November 20 2018, @08:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the where's-my-solar-plastic-roadways? dept.

Phys.org:

Imagine a drive to grandma's house or to work with fewer "left lane closed ahead" signs, fewer detour signs, fewer orange barrels and also safer travel near road crews. That may soon be possible with new technology from Purdue University researchers.
...
This technology uses electrical resistance measurements to determine when the emulsified asphalt in a chip seal has sufficiently cured and can therefore withstand traffic without sustaining damage. Such real-time measurements help ensure that the road repairs are done correctly and more quickly than using current methods.

"Typical approaches to quantify emulsified asphalt-based chip seal curing times are varied and qualitative," said John Haddock, a professor of civil engineering and the director of the Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program, who leads the research team. "Having a quantitative, real-time measurement method can help construction crews make good decisions that result in a quality chip seal project with minimal traffic disruption."

The engineers will know exactly when the asphalt can be driven on.


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  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday November 21 2018, @11:58AM (1 child)

    by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday November 21 2018, @11:58AM (#764674)

    Hell, if you added in heating coils so you can keep it free of snow it would provide a net benefit

    That brings up another major problem: The idea of melting off the snow with the electricity generated would require way more energy than can be produced by the panels, and be huge drain of power even if we used the grid to do it. The only methods in common use for dealing with snow are (a) move it someplace else, or (b) add salt or another chemical which lowers its melting point a bit. That's it. If melting it off really was such a great idea, you'd see people routinely doing that across the parts of the world where snow is common because it would save an awful lot of work.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @04:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @04:29PM (#764794)

    Recently I saw (c), compress snow into ice blocks, which are much more compact to move/store than heaps of snow (full of air). Here's one https://www.autoevolution.com/news/autonomous-robot-eats-snow-turns-it-into-ice-blocks-video-89569.html [autoevolution.com] I think there may have been others.

    Sort of a water-tight garbage compactor...